Happy New Year to Natural New You (Part 2) - Beauty Care, Chemicals & Mindfulness

Natural Beauty Care Regime:

Natural really is best when it comes to looking after the skin you’re in! Our skin is the largest organ of the body and it does a lot for us, so we need to be sure that we are looking after it. The basics come down to the fact that what you put on your skin goes within. That means that any chemical that is contained in the ingredient list of your favourite beauty or makeup products is in fact absorbed into your body directly through the skin. These chemicals can often disrupt hormones and bring about allergic reactions as well as irritating the skin and possibly causing it to feel sensitive, dry and oily, along with some other dangerous health factors depending on the specific chemicals. So, it's time to get the reading glasses on and become a label reading fanatic: it really will benefit the health of your skin and body.

Here are the main two chemicals that should be avoided:

SLS

(Sodium lauryl sulphate) this chemical is used as a lathering agent and is commonly found in soaps, body washes, and shampoos. It's considered to be drying and irritating on the skin and there are natural alternatives that can lather without SLS such as castile soap, and African Black Soap. These natural alternatives may not lather to the extent you would be used to using “conventional” body and hair products, but it is pure myth that you need a good lather to get all cleaned up.

Parabens

There are many different types of parabens to be found in all sorts of cosmetics. They are quite frankly absolutely everywhere and you will often see combinations of two or three different types of parabens in one non-natural cosmetic item, from makeup to hand washes. There are many who believe them to be hormone disruptors and they have even been linked to breast cancer! Parabens are used in the cosmetic industry as a preservative and the ones you will most likely find in your products are: methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, isobutyl paraben, butyl paraben and benzyl paraben.

There are however many other chemicals to be cautious of whilst purchasing your health and beauty care products but these two are the main ones to avoid when starting to take the steps to living a greener and more organic lifestyle

Becoming Mindful:

Mindfulness will play a key role in taking the steps towards reinventing yourself as a cleaner, greener modern day goddess (or god), so a good place to start would be to ask yourself the following questions: what is mindfulness? How can I harness some of that magic and empowerment into my daily routine?

Well, it really is quite easy: you can start taking the time to stop for a moment and become attentive to your own thoughts, emotions, senses and needs (not the materialistic ones). This simple yet effective action can help you to become fully present in the here and now. It is important to take some time away from the distractions that constantly pull us away from the present moment that we live in.

Just taking 5 minutes out of your day to be mindful of the moment and to detox from digital distractions and nagging thoughts about what you need to do later or what happened yesterday, can make a huge difference to your mental health and stress management.

To be continued in part 3 ……………… Mindfulness practices and meditations